Airline brand choice in a duopolistic market: The case of New Zealand

Abstract

This study examines how consumers choose between airlines for domestic flights within New Zealand, where there are only two major airlines, a full-service carrier (FSC) and a low-cost carrier (LCC). Using semi-structured qualitative interviews, information about 209 participants’ most recent domestic flights is elicited. The authors identify the reason(s) behind why passengers chose their airline (i.e., post-consumption) as well as the important factor(s) in determining which airline they will fly on in the future (i.e., pre-consumption). There are 11 major reasons (post-consumption), and 10 major important factors (pre-consumption). These are associated with gender, age, occupation, citizenship, travel characteristics (frequency, recency and purpose) and whether the flight was for/from international transit. Probit regressions are used to predict airline choice based upon the pre-consumption and post-consumption themes, respectively. The findings suggest that airline managers should focus on market penetration through fundamental airline attributes (price, time and reliability) to grow market share.